Theme Of Assef In The Kite Runner

Helena Väinmaa
Assef – The Kite Runner

Assef may be a minor character in the story, but the small role he plays turns out to be pretty big – and influential. He is crucial to Amir and Hassan's growth and changes and represents a sort of Yin-Yang in the book – the sort of dark side that doesn't have a light spot in the middle.
Assef is brutally violent and unnecessarily cruel. The kid lives in the same area as Amir and Hassan, but is of a completely different family: being half Aghan and half German, he represents the sort of Nazi side of the Afghan culture back then: adoring the concepts of Hitler, he wants to flush out what he believes to be trash and only leave the Pushtan people – this is also the source of his hate for Hassan, the Hazara, onto whom he looks down like one who doesn't know any better would look to a dog. Assef is quoted saying 'Too late for Hitler. But not for us," where by 'us' he means Pushtans.
The boy's weakness is best characterised by his need to make himself feel superior to others; he constantly needs to be in power over those around him and hates people who see him as weak. The brass knuckles he carries with him at all times are more of a symbol for his brutality than an actual weapon /mostly. He pleases none but himself and probably has no real loyalty to anyone. His darkness runs deep, but he is excellent in hiding it: he puts on a mask for grown-ups, parents, who might control and calm his darkness.
When Assef appears again in Amir's life, it seems as if his brass knuckles had predicted this. He had remained a hateful and arrogant man throughout the story – having tortured, killed and molested many children, Assef makes Amir fight for Hassan's son named Sohrab. He had not changed and...

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...that he had found after all this time, and Amir fly kites together after finally beating Assef with the slingshot as it was promised many years ago, Amir feels as if he's returned to the past without feeling the guilt of betrayal. He feels like he's back home as it was, and instead of Sohrab, in his dreams he is with his dear friend Hassan. This time kiteflying is sort of a symbol of redemption – as if everything is now again okay, because Hassan has been avenged. Though Hosseini never tells us whether or not he's been truly redeemed, we do feel relieved.
The kites represent many things: a childhood innocence of playing with a friend, the impossibility of buying love with any action and the pain caused from the attempt, the intense guilt felt because of a betrayal of a friend so dear, and in the end, if maybe not redemption, then at least the possibilty of it.